


Running

by Aerilon452



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Path, Complete, Henry is alive, episode fix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 11:17:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18409547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerilon452/pseuds/Aerilon452
Summary: Henry managed to get away.





	Running

Run. Henry had to keep running. His leg was screaming in agony, but the adrenaline pumping through his body kept him going. Moving through the trees, he had to kept back to Kingdom territory. There he could find a few places to hide. He just had to get there. The sound of his heart pounded in his ears and his lungs burned with every inhalation of air. Run. Run. Run! He could barely remember prying free the board on the back of the barn or slipping through it. All he heard were the screams of his friends telling him to run, to get help.

Henry dared to slow down, to check his surroundings. There, on a tree to his left, was a marker. He was finally back in his own territory. But he wasn’t completely safe yet. He was still being chased by Lydia’s former group. His leg muscles were burning, his wound demanding that he slow down. If he slowed down, he was going to get caught, and he would die. Henry could still hear Enid screaming at him to go. 

Setting off again, Henry loped through the woods towards a spot used for hunting. It was laced with hidden traps, and snares. If he could just get there, he would have a chance to rest and for nightfall. It was dangerous to travel at night, but he was willing to take the chance. He wondered if he pursuers were that brave. 

Finally, he came to the treacherous part of Kingdom territory, and he had to stop. He’d memorized where the pit traps were, but things change and there was more foliage covering the floor than there had been the last time he’d been here with his dad. Taking a minute, he let his heart rate slow, his breathing even out, and let his ears listen to the sounds around him. For now, he was in the clear. 

Henry knew he was still too far away from the front gates of the Kingdom, and he was going to have to spend the night outside. His only hope of surviving the night was to find out of the pit traps. So, with a deep breath, he set off carefully. He paused for a moment to pick up a thick tree limb suitable to be a walking stick. But it would serve another purpose. It would help him locate one of the traps he needed. 

Systematically, he searched the area around him with the tip of the stick, until he felt a devoid space. What ever luck he lived by was with him in this moment. Kneeling down on his good knee, he picked up the edge of the camouflage and slipped down into the pit. He was careful to avoid the pikes and his feet touched the ground. Unfortunately, he couldn’t rest yet. Henry pulling his knife and started hacking at the wall of the pit. He created a small crevice where he could hide until morning. 

Henry had been digging for what felt like hours when he heard a twig snap. It was deafening in the silence of the woods. He returned his knife to its sheath and wedged himself in the crevice while holding the temporary staff in case he needed to defend himself. From the lessons Morgan had taught him, he knew how to make himself go as still as death. The shuffling of feet through the leaves had his adrenaline spiking again, demanding that he flee for his life. But he fought it. He forced himself to stay concealed and wait for whatever it was to pass him by.

The shuffling grew closer and closer, and then he heard the whispers. For a second, he closed his eyes and let himself be afraid while he counted to ten. After that, he was going to grit his teeth and, if it was needed, he was going to fight for his life. He wanted to see his mom and dad again. He wanted to see Lydia. 

“He’s got to be around here somewhere…”

“But where?”

“Keep looking.”

Henry fought with his body not to give him away. The shuffling of feet set off back the way they had come. He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. Even though it was going to get cold tonight, he was going to stay where he was. He couldn’t risk being out in the woods with his leg hurting like it was. Henry needed rest, and for now he was as safe as he could be. 

 

PIKE BORDER:

 

“Where’s Henry? Where’s my son!?” Carol shouted. She rounded on Saddiq, searching his face for answers. She searched each face, dreading what she would find, but a small spark of hope breathed to life when she didn’t find Henry’s face. Her son could still be alive. 

“Enid told him to run,” Saddiq said, stumbling over his words. “I saw him head off into the woods, heading for the Kingdom.”

“That was back the way we came!” Carol shouted. 

“Carol…” Michonne said her name gently. 

Carol grit her teeth and clenched her fists. “I’m going back to get my son. He’s not safe out there,” she stated with anger and fear vying for control in her voice. 

“They’re watching us right now,” Michonne reminded her. “We go back to Kingdom and head out in the morning.”

Carol scoffed, “You wouldn’t be saying that if it was Judith.” She knew it was cruel, but she was angry. Alpha had taken Henry with the intention of killing him to punish Lydia. 

Michonne let the comment go. She had to. There was more at stake and they had to get back to the Kingdom. She looked at Daryl, moving her head, silently telling him to watch Carol. Daryl nodded once. 

 

MORNING:

 

Henry was shivering, seeing his breath floating up on the cold air. He had barely slept, listening for walkers and whisperers alike to come his way. His body ached from the cold and he knew he was going to have to come up from his hiding place sooner or later. By now his parents or Lydia had to know he was missing. 

Henry rested his hand over his wound. Through the coldness of his body, he could feel that the stitches were still intact. At least the cold had helped numb the pain in his legs, but once he was up and moving, he was going to be hurting. Moving carefully around the pit spikes, Henry moved to the other side and slowly crawled out from under the cover of the leaves and the woven sticks. 

Henry clawed at the cold ground, pulling himself up, and out to lie on a pile of leaves. He looked up through the canopy, seeing the sky turning from dark to light with the rising sun. “Get up… Get up… Get up…” he told himself in a strong authoritative voice that he’d learned from his father. Rolling to his side, he pushed himself up and went to lean against the nearest tree. He had to get his bearings in the first light of dawn. 

If Henry went back the way he came last night, he could pick up the main road towards the Kingdom, but that would be a suicide run. Surely Lydia’s people were watching it. If he went east, he would be heading further away from home. Henry had no choice but push on through the trap laden woods. 

Henry was halfway through when he senses told him that he wasn’t alone. There was a hollowed-out tree to his left. Moving silently and swiftly, he slipped inside the dead tree hoping it was enough concealment. He closed his eyes and knocked the back of his head into the wood behind him. 

“Henry!”  
“Henry!”

Henry’s eyes flew open. He heard two voices he was scared he would never hear again. His mom and Lydia. 

“Henry!”

Then his’s dad’s voice reached him, and that pulled him from his hiding spot. “Dad!” he called back, alerting the search party to his location. He squeezed himself out from between the dead bark, back into the open. “Dad!” his voice broke with exhaustion. “I’m… here!”

Ezekiel heard Henry’s voice and he thought his heart would break from the rushing wave of relief that washed through him. With Carol following him, they threaded their way through the traps until they found their boy. They moved as swiftly as they dared until there he was, standing in the clearing, standing a few feet rom safety. 

Carol didn’t wait. She dodged all the traps and snares and pulled her son into her arms. He was freezing cold, but he was alive. He clung to her just as tightly. Ezekiel was there, his arms going around both of them. “I was so scared…” she said softly. 

“I was too, mom,” Henry replied, snuggling into his mother’s embrace. He hadn’t been this afraid since he’d been a child, ignorant in the ways of the real world. The night he’d nearly been killed by walker’s, Carol had been there to save him. 

“It’s okay, we’re here now,” Ezekiel added, kissing the top of his son’s head, his beloved boy. 

“I want to go home,” Henry said, his voice nearly on the verge of years. He was tired, scared, and cold. More than that, he knew the others in the barn were dead. He knew it all the way down in his bones, and he was feeling guilty that he was alive because they bought him time to run. 

Ezekiel was the first to pull away. He shed his over coat and wrapped it around his son. “We’re going right now.” Looking back to the assembled search party, he motioned them all to go back the way they had come, they were heading for safety. 

 

KINGDOM:

 

Saddiq was speaking on behalf of the fallen. Henry could hear the words carried along on the wind. He was sitting in his room wrapped up in as many blankets as he would allow his parents to put around him. Sitting in his room he was feeling guilty about being alive. He ran while they fought. He couldn’t even manage to get help. Henry had run for his life and didn’t even look back. What kind of man did that make him? In many ways he’d grown up, but in many more he was a still a frightened child. That didn’t excuse his actions. Henry should have stayed, should have died with everyone else. Then he looked out the window and saw his parents. What would his death do to them? 

Henry turned from the window and wiped away the tears that slid down his cheeks. He couldn’t bear to think about his parents being crushed under the weight of sadness by his death. And Lydia? What would his death have done to her? Henry shook his head, burrowing deeper into the blankets. He covered his face with fleece and concentrated on getting warmer. He was in the grips of Survivors Guilt and no one could help him until he was ready to stop berating himself for being alive. 

*Knock, knock* “Henry…?” 

“I’m fine,” Henry called back to his mother. 

“I know you’re not, but when you’re ready…”

Henry smiled sadly, looking at the door that he knew his mother would not open. She was going to respect his solitude. She often sought the same and it was where he learned it. When he was ready to talk, he knew his mom would listen without judging him. When he was ready, she would offer him her advice on how to get past the nagging voice in his head. It was the voice that told him he should have died. “I love you, mom!” he called back as he heard her footsteps retreating. She didn’t respond, because he didn’t need her to. Henry could picture her smile, sad as it may be, but it helped to sooth the darkness rising in him.

 

THE END


End file.
